Fit for the Future Framework

The next step in organisational evolution

The fit for the future framework

An organisational development framework for REMAINING relevant in the 21st Century

The Fit for the Future Framework - Primary

Today’s fastest growing, most profoundly impactful companies are using a completely different operating model. These companies are lean, mean, learning machines. They have an intense bias to action and a tolerance for risk, expressed through frequent experimentation and relentless product iteration. They hack together products and services, test them, and improve them, while their legacy competition edits PowerPoint.

— The operating model that is eating the world, Aaron Dignan, The Ready, 2016

The "Why" of the Future

Not since the industrial revolution have organisations and businesses been exposed to such a significant shift in their operating conditions. Everywhere we look organisations are struggling to meet the demands of a world in constant change.

For many leaders and business professionals this means a complete revaluation of the way they think and execute modern business. Yet many businesses remain fixated on old ways of working and organising that no longer meet the demands of the modern world. This inability to adapt means that many businesses are experiencing an increasingly crowded market accompanied by decreasing market share and profits.

With leaders and executives spinning so many plates at once it becomes increasingly difficult to coordinate all the moving pieces, such as strategy, leadership and culture. Leaders and managers need some way of navigating the new world that gives them the clarity and precision to make critical business decisions.

The "what" of the future

The fit for the future frameworkwas created by fusing together the best practice approaches from many of todays leading organisations such as Apple, Tesla and Google to create a versatile and agile approach to organisational development and design. This new approach is completely modular in nature and focuses on developing and coordinating four key business dimensions. All of which merge into one holistic and integrated model that form the foundations of an adaptive and agile organisation.

The Four key dimensions of the Fit for the Future Framework seeks to build and integrate:

Global Thinking - We live in a world where digital connectivity keeps us continually networked to a global infrastructure that has no borders. To perform in today's commercial environment executives and managers need to think a a global level while comprehending the ripple effect of their decisions at the operational and strategic level. To do this while making effective decisions means that leaders need to focus on taking their thinking to the next step, which means engaging in vertical development to build a more comprehensive world view.

Agile Innovation - With startups needing infinitely less capital to become competitive in any given market. Businesses can longer afford to be reliant on past successes or the same business model they have had for the last 20 years. To create an edge in today's uncertain and volatile corporate climate organisations need to be able to reduce cycle time, identify new products and niches; all while testing and scaling them into the market in rapid succession. In the future the capacity for agile innovation will become a necessity for all organisations that want to remain relevant or create a competitive advantage.

Collaborative Community - Culture is an ever-present force within every organisation, we can't necessarily see it, but we feel it. Many organisations invest large amounts of capital trying to create a single and aligned culture. We know that each person is uniquely different and offers specialised skills. What if we sought to create a collaborative community instead of a single culture within organisations, a community that respected the dignity and diversity of each individual while allowing them to bring their unique gifts into alignment with the organisation's purpose for the benefit of all. Now wouldn't that would be something different, something worth investing in?

Liberating Structures - The internal design and structures of most organisations have remained unchanged for nearly 20 years. During the manufacturing age of command and control leadership, it served us well. However, when applied to a world of constant change and uncertainty it quickly becomes unresponsive and overly bureaucratic. In the future organisations will need to create liberating structures. These flexible and non-hierarchal organisational structures will be critical for companies that want to remain adaptive and agile in order to maintain a competitive advantage in the market place of the future.

The "How" of the future

Each of these primary four dimensions divide into a secondary set of activities that can be seen below. Each quadrant seeks to explore and build capacity, capability and impact by deploying a specific set of actives and approaches in each circle, which I have called Developmentally Novel Activities(DNA). These DNA practices or activities focus on building four organisational outcomes.

Employee Performance - The combination of Leadership and Behaviour

Organisational Execution - The combination of Behaviour and Strategy

Organisational Alignment - The combination of Leadership and Culture

Employee Engagement - The combination of Culture and Strategy

The Fit for the Future - DNA Framework

If you'd like to know about how the Fit for the Future Framework can assist your organisation to not only remain relevant but capture industry leading competitive advantage, please get in touch and let's talk about building your organisations fitness for the future.